Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-10-21
SUFFERERS SCHOOL.
HOW THE HABIT OF STAMMERING
is OFTEN ACQUIRED.

pediments of Speech of a Nervous
Character.
ssYoung man, how did you acquire the
habit of stuttering?' 81 UNUSED to
m-m-mock a man. When he d-d-died 1
took his place" The question was by the
professor of a vocal institute, and the
answer by a young man who had just an
nounced his intention of taking series of
lessons. A reporter was present, and sit
ting around the room were several intelli-
gent looking young men, the most Of whom
could speak as fuently as any one. Ali
declared that they had until recently been
most inveterate Sufferers or stammerers.
The DOCTORS question suggested an inter
esting train of thought. The reporter put
the same question to each of the patients
in turn. ;'When I was about 6 years of
age" said number one 'fI commenced to
stutter a little. Then we moved to a
strange place and / went to school. 1
was very diffident, and the teacher at
tempted to force me to read and recite.
The scholars laughed at me, I became
more diffident, and soon the habit was
fixed on me.''
''I am his brother" said number two.
81 learned it of him.
:.
three, IT used to play all the time with
another boy who was horrible sufferer,
and learned it Of him. Whenever I was
out with the boys and didn't think of it
would sometimes find myself talking all
right, but as soon as 1 thought about it
would commence again. My little brother
afterward learned it of me.''
Number four said he learned the habit
from another boy, but would have con-
quered it had not his teacher forced him
to read and recite, at which times he be-
came SO nervous as to lose all control of
himself. All had acquired the habit at
the age of or 7.
OF A NERVOUS NATURE.
"That accords with the most of my ex-
perience, y said the doctor; ''these impede
ments of speech are for the most part of
nervous nature. Lack of will power, the
telegraphic system of the body out of
order, imperfect connection between the
brain and muscles of speech. All this
trouble sometimes arises from sudden
fright. One patient of NINE young
lady, was slightly seized with stammering
at the time of the great fire. Afterward
she saw a COW catch little child on it's
horns. She was paralyzed with fright,
unable to scream or move. The animal
tossed the child into the air. She rushed
to the spot and the child was fatally in
jured. After that the lady was bad case
of confirmed stammering.
Zone of the worst cases | ever had was
that of a young man. When he was a
boy of or years of age his father
threatened, if he committed certain Of
tense, to throw him into the well The
boy committed the offense, and his father
held him for a moment over the well head
downward. From that time on the boy
could not talk plainly. Many children
acquire this malady in infancy, just as
they are beginning to talk. Their parents
or nurses tickle them, sometimes on the
bottoms of the feet, thinking the loud
laughter thus excited amusing. The pa
papa which the little ones cry out at such
times is the first inception of the habit of
suffering
The doctor is a jolly fellow, of fine ply
sique and great personal magnetism, with
the voice and laugh of lion, if lion can
be imagined as laughing. In training his
class he commences, in the most natural
way in the world, to talk of all sorts of in
teresting subjects, and soon an infection of
good feeling seizes all present He roars
out his words with such force and f1uency
from the depths of his immense lungs that
talking seems the easiest thing in the
world Occasionally remark is ad-
dressed to some member of the class in a
conversational sort of way, and before
they know it everybody seems to be able
to talk. Occasionally he goes the rounds
of the class with various vocal exercises
for the development of certain muscles.
SOME OF THE EXERCISES.
Here are few of the exercises Some
ministers and actors would do well to
practice them:
''Amos Ames, the amiable aeronaut,
aided in an aerial enterprise at the age
of So
Obtain all opportunities of obliterat-
ing obnoxious destinations. :"
'fHenry bingham has hung his harp on
the hook where he hitherto hung his
hopes" What a nut for a Cockney to
crack.
81 like white vinegar with veal very
well''
''She sells sea shells. Shall he sell sea
shells?'
''Quixote Quixite quizzed a queerish
quidbox. Where is the queerish quidbox
Quixote Quixite quizzed?'
When the pupils can recite these SEN
fences and hundred or so similar ones
fiuently they are graduated.
A clear cut, elegant and fluent utter
ance is one of the greatest graces with
which a person can be gifted. It tells al
most the whole story of ones birth early
training and associations. The different
kinds of faulty elocution are known as
suffering, stammering, hesitancy, lisp
ing, exhausted breath, nasal sound and
improper articulation. Many people fall
under so complete list as this, who in
some instances could improve their utter
ance by little private practice and atten-
ton to the matter. A sufferer has the
most difficulty in uttering .lingual sounds,
such as words beginning with L. while the
stammerer stumbles over the labial
sounds, of which words beginning with B
are an example. Both habits are accom-
panied with facial distortion, and some
times with a writing OF twitching of the
whole body. That these are nervous af-
fections is shown by the devices resorted
to to get over some difficult letter or
sound, as swapping the finger or stamping
the foot. Il shut Mummy fist tight"
said stammerer, land the electricity
runs up my arm and lets the sound
c-c-come out" At the letter c he drove
his finger nails clear into the palm of his
hands.-Chicago Herald.